The First Fall

Chapter 34

“Where is Nina, J T?” Alex asked me the moment he came to the party. He had a meeting at the office which he couldn’t postpone and he was a little late because of that.

“She is somewhere here. I saw her with Emily and Rhea a while ago.”

“I already looked around and couldn’t find her. You know how she hates to be in the middle of a crowd. I just want to make sure that she is okay.”

“Come on brother. She is not a child. She should learn to mingle. What do you think will happen once she marries that Jerk? She will even have to play the host when they throw a party.”

Alex gave me a look. “So you are okay with her relationship with Jordan?”

“I didn’t say that I approve her choice whole heartedly but I can’t hurt her feelings also. There is the fact that only that man could drag her out of her grief and she hasn’t shown this kind of affection to anyone after Roy.”

“You are right JT. But I also don’t want to see her getting hurt because of your difference with Jordan. Either you should clear the air between you two or one of you will have to tell her everything about what happened with that girl.”

I knew about whom Alex was trying to talk about and I didn’t want to go there. “Look Alex, its part of a very ugly past of ours. I already told you that I am ready to tolerate Jordan for her sake. I will not make a scene with him again but don’t just ask me to accept him as a brother-in-law. I will accept him as Nina’s choice or as her husband. That’s it.”

“As you wish JT, but what scares me is this, what will happen when she gets to know about the reason for your hatred for Jordan? I am concerned how she will react. You told me that you wanted to talk to him about them. Did you?”

“Yes. Don’t look at me like that Alex. I went to meet him in his office today and we talked about all this. You were right Alex; he really loves her a lot. He even stayed here yesterday night after you took her home and Uncle Richard showed him Roy’s laptop and that phone and told him everything. He even went through Roy’s journal. He is ready to accept the fact that he can’t erase Roy or his memories from her life and is okay with her friendship or relationship with us."

"What more can I ask from him? If he won’t try to take her away from us then I think I can tolerate him. He too agrees that we shouldn’t tell her anything about what happened and I think I misunderstood him a lot back then. I have a feeling that he is not that bad. He is afraid that if we tell her about that…girl…and what happened, she will think that he is using her for revenge and will try to avoid him which he can’t even think about.”

“As you wish but be careful Jose, secrets in a relationship are a very bad concept and it can jeopardize your friendship and Jordan’s love. I don’t like the way Mrs. Xavier treats her. It’s quite obvious that she doesn’t like Nina and she is asking a lot of questions about her. We all know what she is capable of and I absolutely hate the idea of having her and Nina at the same place.”

“I will go and look for her. But what confuses me is she should have been here already because she was waiting for you and was asking why you were getting late and all. Where is that girl?”

When I couldn’t find Nina after looking for her at the party and inside the house, fear began to creep through my mind. My mind kept saying that Nina was missing and a strange feeling, something similar to what I felt that night when everything went bad with Roy started taking root inside my heart. I called her phone and found it ringing inside a bag sitting in the living room table.

I ran outside and found Alex chatting with some people and dragged him to a silent corner. Jordan too came rushing to our side sensing something because he knew that I was looking for Nina a few minutes ago.